|| Cold Coffe || Getting serious with caffeine in my system

[Lyraina]

Sorry to hear about the accident! Hope it’s not too bad? Get well soon man! D:
Regarding studies showing in personal work - in my experience, there always is a huge lag time between doing studies, and those actually having any effect on my work. Sometimes I feel like the brain just needs some time to actually work through what you’ve been studying and digest it before it shows. Just keep pushing, maybe shift focus of what you’re concentrating your studies on every now and then.
I know that feeling of going backwards though -_- Just know that it’s normal. Also check if you need to slow down a bit, happens to me sometimes when I get frantic and think I’m not progressing - no good can come from that. Just keep working and you’ll get there eventually!
Keep it up, hope you recover soon :)

[Archreux]

Hey, no need to rush things if you're feeling shit. Take some time away from it all if need be, and some fresh air can do us all some good. I totally get where you're coming from with worrying about how studying may not be effecting your overall outcome when doing work from imagination. I tend to find myself using ref as well and stiffening everything up as well.

Consider trying some new studying/application techniques when you get back.

You'll be taking some good stuff away from all of this in the end. Take care, man. :]

[rafa zanchetin]

^ They pretty much said it all, get better man.
This is trully a roller coaster of emotions, I've had ups and downs on the last few weeks but you gotta push through it.

[Jaetryn]

Nice sketchbook yourself man! I skimmed through and from the looks of the other comments it seems like you're feeling like you're in a slump?

I don't have much more to add on than what the others have said but keep on going. I don't even know you and i believe in you.

Good luck man. Lookin forward to more stuff!

[Jaik]

Looking good man. I like the deisngn that went into your ChoW character. Lots of thought out sketches. Good job :D keep up the good work!

[Suira]

BenFlores: Thanks man! I'll keep them coming, although they're gonna still be pretty lame for a while xD

Lyraina: Thanks a lot for the feedback and good wishes Lyra! The accident thing is no big deal just a few scratches and a really really painfull open toenail , but nothing serious. And you're right I maybe am being too impatient, I'll just keep at it even if I feel it's total shit. I also decided to follow your advise and take extra time to do the studies, in the hopes it kind of pays off, it didn't but I'll keep trying haha.

Archreux: I think you're right man, some distance will probably help too. I'm trying to keep it steady and even focusing on breathing some fresh air, reading theory and stuff like that, it's helping a lot to get back in the mood. Thanks a lot for your kind words and dropping by man, really appreciate it :)

rafa: Yeah man, it's a very huge rollecoaster hehe. I'll get my motivation back soon I guess, for now I just hate everything I do hahah.

Jaetryn: Thanks! Yeah rough batches, they come and go, I'll get over it eventually :) Loving your work btw!

Jaik: Thanks! :)


Well, got back into it, kinda slowly though , I'm reading articles about tecniques and trying to make sense on how come I suddenly seem to have forgotten all I've learned. I'll just keep tossing studies cause personal work is very very lame lately. Thank you guys for your support it really helped me to just keep at it no matter how increidibly lame I feel I'm getting :P

So for today, a 3,5h Velazquez study, that came out like total shit. I kinda learned something about limited value/hue range and simplificty I guess, so mission acomplished...maybe:



Oh yeah, I started using a custom nib I made out of trim wire following a tutorial on DA, and did both the study and this shit sketch for fun that's completely over the top, celebrating the fact that it actually works. I had been using a super grinded nib for like 4 months since there's no way to get shhipments or buy anything like that where I am:



Some gestures from mind, I spilled coffe or some shit in it so yeah:




A brief shoulder study based on Ron Lemen's handouts from TAD:


And some hel-looks.com studies:



Pretty much utter SHIT, but I wanted to toss them here to let you guys know I'm trying to work trough this freaking block. Hope you're all happy, motivated and, most importantly NOT BLOCKED LIKE ME xD

[rafa zanchetin]

Sexy gestures / cloth design!! Your pencilwork is always nice to look at. Bonus points for man boobs.
Just keep pushing on those master paintings man, don't be afraid of colors!

[pnate]

Woohoo gettin back on that upswing! Yeah, at least for me, those dark days come in cycles :/ Hope the pain from that accident's gotten better, that's a tough deal. Keep pushin man! I always think of it like being constipated. It feels like there's no progress being made and a it's just a constant blockage, but you'll reach that point of relief if you just keep going. If you pause, it just comes right back up and you have to start pushing all over again. But seriously, you got this :) Also, how's that wire trimmer working out? I heard about that fix, wasn't sure if it actually was a good replacement for the real thing.

[Suira]

Rafa: Hahahaha I laughed so hard when I realised the man boobs thing xD Thanks man, you're gonna be seing a fuckton of pencilwork this week, I'm gonna pospone color for later for now.

Nate: Yeah man, it's like a bad cold , a pretty annoting one at that. Thankfully I seem to be getting back on track, I'll keep my fingers crossed! By the way, in case you didn't save the link from the tutorial on the stream, here it is again: http://vegarblack.deviantart.com/art/Mak...-343443919

Well, GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!



My foot seems to be healing allright, and not only that! I also have changed my schedule ( now I go to bed at 6pm and wake up at midnight) to be able to get some sunlight every now and then. After this whole chaos week I had I'm back on track, which is vital if you wanna keep a steady workflow, so we're back to daily updates, yay!

After lots of thought I decided to face the truth: my shit sucks and there's a reason for that. I lack a lot of fundamental knowledge, specially regarding basic shape understanding, so I've decided that instead of juggling 5 things at the same time I'm gonna focus exclusively on ONE thing, and I'm gonna do it in the medium I'm more comfortable at ( pencil if possible, photoshop if necessary) so I don't get distracted with pointless stuff.

I've started with face studies + application, this is what I did today, I condensed it into 2 pages but in truth it's about 2 heads per page, so it was quite a productive day. I'll be doing these until I feel comfortable enough with facial structure, and then jump into value understanding. BTW I signed in Sam Nielson's schoolism course, so all of this preeliminary work is also intended so I can focus on just values and color once the course starts on October 31st.

Well, too much text and too little images so here we go.

Referenced:



Application:



After this first day I feel like I'm REALLY learning for the first time in some time now, so I'm kinda pumped to keep at it, of course, tons more of work to be done until I get a hang of it, but I feel progress, which is always good motivation.

Anyway, that's all for today, see you tomorrow with the next batch, take care folks!

[rafa zanchetin]

Oh yeah man, finding that sweet spot with those faces, they look badass man.
Keep up the good vibes and keep them coming!

[Lyraina]

Glad to hear that your injuries are healing. :) A schedule that allows you to get some sunlight sounds good to me, it's one of the things too often neglected in our lifestyle... are those 6 hours of sleep all you need to work throught the whole rest of the night plus day or are you napping some time in the morning? I wish I could sustain myself on just consistent 6 hours of sleep but it's just not enough for me if I want to stay somewhat healthy and concentrated.

Focused studies are a good thing for sure, not only because it helps to really go in deep and really understand it, but also because it means quicker improvement which is good for motivation.

Sam Nielson's course? Awesome! Really looking forward to what you'll be producing for that one.

Faces look good, don't see much to crit. Always think of the planes befor starting to hatch and shade. In most of them I can see that you're already doing that though. Keep it up! :)

[Archreux]

Yeah man! Good to hear things are feeling better. Face studies, you and I are in the same boat then, haha. I've been thinking heavily on focusing all of my efforts into one category as well.

Can't wait to see more batches are studying! :D

[Cyprinus]

During my absence here I missed so many great posts and updates from you! Look at how much your sketchbook has grown and all the work you have put in. Absolutely amazing!

I'm sorry to read about your bike accident and those motivation lows, but I'm so glad you're feeling better and you're back on the track again! I really like the idea of focused studies and have thought about trying it as well, more than one time. Curious on how it will turn out for you! Sweet work on those heads!

Keep up the amazing stuff <3

[Suira]

Rafa:Haha thanks man, tons more to come!

Lyra: Yeah , the new schedule was cool, but I encountered a few technical problems ( mainly my computer reaching boiling temperature from 11am) so I'm going back to sleeping during the morning and waking up at 4pm. The six hour thingie is mostly a guideline. Let's say that out of 7 days I follow the six hours rule about 4 days, the rest I sleep between 8-10, depending on how tired I am to compensate, exhausting yourself is counterproductive in the end :P Can't wait for Nielson's course it's gonna be awesome! And yeah, some more structure needed on them faces, hopefully I'll fix that during the month :)

Archreux: Hahaha yeah man, it's a pain in the butt but it has to be done, I found these simplified studies really helpfull to focus on the stuff that I feel I need to improve, so recommended. And don't worry there's a lot more coming where that cdame from!

Cyprinus: Thanks man, trying to keep it steady, although there's always ups and downs. And yeah, I'm still injured but I recovered most of my mobility so it's all good. And as I told the others, tons of head studies coming in the near future, and on this update!

Ok, so I didn't update yesterday cause I hate scanning, I didn't do much yesterday, but today I didn't sleep so I did a fuckton of work, which impresses me having in account that I have procrastinated quite a while ( 5 chapters of Falling Skies watched) still I don't beat myself because of procrastination this time cause these fucking studies consume a lot of brain power, I don't even know how I'm writting this xD. Ok, here we go.


As I've been saying on the streams and the chat and everywhere basically, I've been doing Asaro head studies from that 3d model for sketchup, and I gotta say it's hard as fuck, I focused basically on the cheekbones this time cause I wanted to truly understand how they're shaped, so I first did these studies:




Then I did some sketches from mind to see how I'd build trying to remember structure and shit, but the results where mostly failures, since I didn't really know how to relate those super geometrical designs with actual organic flesh:




So I decided to work from some indian refs I downloaded yesterday, and see if I could apply the construction skills I was trying to learn from the asaros, and it fucking worked, my construction has improved, but I need a lot more of studies till I can fake it from memory. These took about 40 min each (quite a long time yeah) except the lame bruce willis study that took like 15 mins , pretty pleased with the results and learned a lot:




Now, on the brainfart section we have a zombie sketch I redid from an old sketch I did that was terribly built, and that took like 5 hours to render to that pityfull state, the rough one was just to prove I can build better to myself:



Oh, and poop heads I did during my coffe breaks:



That's about it for today, now I'm going to bed cause I'm dead, goodnight everybody!

[Suira]

Slow day. Didn't feel like it and barely worked 4 hours or so.

This whole " get faces right" kind of thing is sort of an experiment for me, to see if I can consistently do something that annoys me and seems to yield no results for an entire month. Very hard, but still I feel like I'm learning even if it doesn't shows. So today I realised I was coming back to my bad tendencies again, which are basically getting into elaborate copy mode and not learn anything. So I have decided to focus on just two aspects: learn how faces are volumetric wise, and more importantly, learn how to interpret the forms even if I'm not being fully accurate regarding what I see. As of now is a total failure, but it's the first time ever ( aside from imaginative stuff) that I try, so it's no surprise. Anyway, here we go:

First, the obligatory Asaro study, I feel my proportions are getting better aswell as my knowledge of the structure, but this shit is hard as fuck to remember, so I need to do more of these referenced studies:



Then some heads from mind, focusing on construction and trying to get them less blocky, failed:



Referenced face studies on "copy mode": ( 25-35 mins/each)



Referenced studies on "interpret" mode: ( 10 mins/ each):

[Lyraina]

Yeah ... copy mode is dangerous. Rewarding because you have something pretty (or not) on the paper but a waste of time ... but good if you realized it when you're falling in that pattern. About studies not showing in your stuff (yet), sometimes that takes a while. You're still learning, let your brain some time to process and digest the information (at least mine always takes a while until stuff shows up).

I like the energy our pencil work has. Very confident :) In the right ones of those heads on the bottom I feel like you're missing a part of the back of the head/cranium though. Unless they're caricatures.

[Archreux]

Yeah man, these faces are already looking better and it hasn't even been an entire page.

I totally feel you on trying to escape that blocky, leftover feeling when it comes to faces. In the past I've tried using a similar method of facial construction and it always seemed like those hard shapes would find their way through, messing up the organics. I see what you're talking about, that blockiness in your stuff, however it's not so bad in your case. If you keep doing what you're doing, your stuff will naturally get softer on their own. :]

[LaleAnn]

Really awesome stuff! Loved the one you did about newbie to pro xD Your burshwork has been getting clearly better! The two last portraits you just did are really gorgeous with simplicity, very effective brushwork there. Keep it up!

[meat]

You're really good with portraits of all sorts of people, and that's great practice! One day that'll make you a great character concept artist.

[Suira]

Lyra: Yeah, breaking the copy habit is proving to be a hard task, but I'm slowly succeeding to break it, and I gotta say that getting your own interpretation of what you see in paper feels much better than just an uncaccurate copy :D . Also the studies are starting to pay off, and that gives me more resolve to keep on struggling. And I'm glad you like the confidence hehe sometimes I mess it up, but I really am starting to enjoy taking bold decisions. And yeah that dude came off kinda wonky but I'm starting to experiment with a somehow caricature approach to kind of grasp how far I can get it before it starts to look non realistic. Glad to see you drop by as always :D

Archreux: Haha yeah man, the struggle! I think I have discovered a way to kind of reconciliate blocky studies with organic feeling, which is a mix of asaro + reference + organic from imagination ( while keeping in mind the structure but not making it the dogma). Let's hope it leads somewhere, I'm glad you dig man :D

LaleAnn: Thanks man! Tons of work to do still, but you know how it is, baby steps :) And yeah, the noobie to pro is proving to be accurate, I'm getting fatter by the day, so I guess I'm also geting better slowly hahaha.

Meat: Thanks! I'll keep my fingers crossed in the hopes you're right man :)

Well, today procrastination won the battle again, just six hours of work, while I spent 11 hours in front of the computer :P Anyway, I'm not so concerned, because taking it easy is helping me to have more brain power to really sink in the lessons I'm learning from my studies, so no guilt trips lately.

I've been focusing on what makes faces look copnvincing and what are the basic shape groups that convey believability, kinda hard to tackle , but I think it's starting to yield some results. Also I have discovered that leaning towards exageration is actually a pretty effectiv method. You start really gestural, and then gradually tone it down to more realistic proportions and stuff, funny how I've always run away from caricature and now it's proving to be the thing to do to get it sorta right hehe. Well, here we go:

First, a couple of quick asaro setups from memory to see what I'm learning of pure structure, simetry is kinda off, but I was surprised to see that most of the planes where quite accurate:



Then, a referenced asaro profile study, and a quick breakdown to remember it:



Then some heads from mind, kinda wonky, but somehow better than the ones from yesterday:



And finally the referenced studies focusing on basic shape groups and value reads:




And that's all for today folks, more to come tomorrow! :)